The government has vowed to push through sweeping reform of children's mental health services.

The health secretary, John Reid, will tomorrow announce plans to provide 24-hour access to psychiatric services for the seriously disturbed and more help for troubled children through schools and local authorities.

The Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service will be instructed to include 16 and 17-year-olds, who have previously been treated as adults, and hospitals will be told that it is no longer acceptable to admit young people to adult wards.